Leaving Tambov

We are packing up our stuff and getting ready to leave Tambov. It has been such an amazing trip!!! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!!! I will try to post again in Moscow, but don’t know for sure. Please check back later to see more pictures and stories from the trip.

Last day of Immanuel's Child

This was the last day of the Immanuel' Child outreach. We went east to Mitchurinsk and and were at two locations. The first location, a school, had some of the oldest kids we have seen so far. Some of the Russians we are ministering with have been doing a skit/puppet show, but not all were able to make it today. So we had a sort of abbreviated version of what we normally did, but things still went well. Please pray for the ministry at the school Raphael is trying to get a weekly program in the school and after our outreach he is going to ask the administration if they would be willing to allow the program. Please pray for favor in the site of the administration. Tomorrow we will be Tambov for a Sunday morning service, some shopping, and then train ride back to Moscow. We cannot believe how quickly our trip has gone. We have loved spending time with these children and ministering with our Russian brothers and sisters. Here are a few more pictures...

 

 

 

Immanuel's Child in a town with a name I can't pronouce or spell.

Today we went to a town and did outreaches in a school and a library. We had some kids who showed up at the school and then walked all the way to the library to see things again. I would like to write more but I am late for another game time with some English speaking Russians. Please pray as we desire to share out testimonies with them. Especially pray for Sveta!! Before I go here are some more pictures of the kids.

Sorry for the delay!

Sorry we haven't posted anything for a little while. We didn't have internet for a while. Yesterday was Christmas and we went to a orphanage just outside of Tambov. There were around 130 kids and a lot of them were special needs. This orphanage is the one where Anya (Translator) and Jenni (Missionary) are able to to the Orphans Reborn program. These kids showed us so much affection when we left. They were hugging us all the way out the door and to the cars. I (Mike) even had one kid open my door while we were driving away. I was very blessed to stars of people that I recognized (even my own). From Twin Falls I had Darren & Mary Ann, Samantha Graff, and Pastor Bear. I was also able to had out a star from Mike Hotrum in Pocatello. It was such an incredible experience to hand out these stars for you!

Debbie with some of orphans.

Pictures from game night

I already posted about game night but didn't post a picture. Here are a couple pictures.

Morshansk--Thanks Topscorer...whoever you are :)

Today we went to two orphanages in Morshansk. The first orphanage had about 20 kids in the 8-13 range. Here are pictures...

Jon standing while everyone else is sitting...we don't know why.

Kathryn teaching caterpillar game

Four of the boys with hats and stars from Boise.

This is the whole group (kids and team).














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The second orphanage was a surprise for us. We were expecting kids who were older than the first orphanage and these this were 1 1/2 to 3 years old (and a couple older than that). One look at these kids and the had our hearts. These kids were so precious and it was hard knowing that they were orphans. We played some games with beach balls (Thanks Ohio team!) and we did Simon says. After that we did a skit about Jesus being God's Christmas gift to them.

Here are some pictures from the second orphanage...

Please pray for continued ministry in these orphanages.









There were a little over 30 kids from the orphanage















Here are some kids with there gifts and hats

Everyone of these kids were as precious as this one.

Game night with Russia University Students

Last night we had a great opportunity to meet some students from Tambov State University. These girls are not Christians, but Anya (translator) and Jenni (Missionary) have been developing relationships with these girls and invited them to come meet some Americans and practice English. We had a blast playing Dutch Blitz (it’s like Nertz).  Please pray for opportunities to share the gospel with these girls.

Today we are starting the Immanuel’s Child outreach. We are going to two orphanages in Morshonsk (I have not clue how to spell it).  Please pray for these kids!! Pray that they would be receptive to the gospel and that we would be able to show them the love of Christ. I will post some pictures when we get back tonight.

Temperature

In case your are wondering on the left side of the blog you can see the current weather and time in Tambov.  It was so cold this morning getting off of the train the Mike’s head was steaming.

Stitches...

So just before our trip Kathryn had arthroscopic surgery on her knee, which required some stitches. Now that a few days have passed she had to have the stitches taken out and we are blessed to have an RN on our team. Today while we had some free time Debbie removed the stitches from Kathryn’s knee. Here are a couple of pictures for those who are interested. 

Kathryn and I (Mike) talked about her classes in order to distract her (the future PA) from the process. She was getting queasy….which I personally think is very funny.

We are in Tambov

Just  a quick note. We made it safely to Tambov and are getting ready to eat breakfast (even though it is 10:30pm in Idaho. We will write more later.

We made it!!!

We were at JFK airport and looking out the window at our plane…and then we saw them take the plane away!! We were delayed until about 5pm as they replaced the plane again. Finally with the fourth plane, over two days, we were able to leave New York and make it to Russia. We are now waiting in the SGA offices in Moscow until this evening and then we will get on an overnight train to Tambov.  Here are some pictures of our time in the airport. The first two are while our team waiting in line for our hotel vouchers (sometime after midnight). The bottom picture is the second day at JFK just before we boarded our plane. Thanks for your prayers!!! Keep praying for the Immanuel’s Child outreach!

Uneventful first day….just kidding :)

So we have had a very interesting trip so far. At this point in the trip we should be getting on an overnight train heading for Tambov, but instead we are at a Holiday Inn in New York. We got on our first plane for Moscow and they had a mechanical problem that they weren’t able to get the part for. So we got of the plane and the moved us to a different gate and loaded us on a plane way out in the middle of nowhere. After being on the plane for a few hours while they transferred luggage, food, water, and fuel they were ready to take off. We were fourth in line when they told us that they had another mechanical problem and we had to return to the terminal. When we returned to the terminal we were told that we would leave at 12:45 am and a half hour before we were to board they canceled the flight. After a long wait in line we were sent a hotel.  We are now getting ready to go back to the airport and try again.  Even with all the bumps we are doing well and our spirits are good. Please pray for our the rest of our flight and the rest of our trip (I hear that there is a big snow storm in Moscow).  Hopefully when I blog again it will be from Moscow.